TLDR at the bottom;
Introduction:
As a mog, alt, and main changing enthusiast it’s always a goal to try and collect as many of the tier sets as possible during the season. But there is a problem with 9 individual pieces (why bracers? seriously), 13 classes, and 4 raid tiers that is 400+ individual pieces you need to collect in a season, assuming you want them ALL. This doesn’t include the luck and resources required to get what you specifically for missing pieces just to look good.
Secondly, you only get a catalyst charge once every 2 weeks! Which is fine for power balancing, but what about looks? For character progression, you have to think about BiS, which may not require the tier set. Again, when it comes to upgrading via stones/crests again power over appearance hoping a piece drops or the vault is kind. Sometimes you have to choose between the look or the power. Moreover, when you’re going through the season, you may not get the full set because of vault spikes in power so you are left with holes in your set. Typically, I usually get 6/9 RF, 4/9 N, 4/9 H, and 3/9 M by the end of my M+ journey for the season. Then, have to start targeting pieces to complete the set and wait for the catalyst charges and upgrade to the threshold. Usually just end up selling the piece once I get the appearance.
Alts usually get the same treatment, focusing on power over style. Sure, when the catch-up gear gets released, getting RF and normal are pretty easy, but there is a definite wall when it comes to finishing beyond that. You may not be interested in pushing keys, raids, or delves but you sure do want that look. This doesn’t discount the stone/crest requirements as well.
Proposal:
Here’s my idea, a scrapper for any dropped gear in the current season that rewards currency to purchase the looks, NO POWER, just looks for the whole warband. When the season is over, the purchase NPC is gone and can only be acquired in that raid.
I can hear what some are thinking, “Why should everyone get what I work hard for?” That’s where the work comes in. In order to unlock this feature for your warband, you have to put in some legwork. First, you need to complete the season’s journey on one pillar, meaning Heroic Raid clear, M+ rating of 3000, or defeat the delve boss on the hardest difficulty SOLO. This only unlocks the scrapper, then the next part comes in.
At first, the shop and scrapper are only available for the characters that meet the first minimum requirement above to start collecting and fill in gaps. However, the warband unlock occurs when you complete all 9 pieces of a tier level on one character. Tie this to an achievement for the unlock. For your main you should be pretty darn close to completing at least 1 tier level by that point for the first requirement.
Once unlocked, you are now free to start grinding (literally) a now warbound currency to start purchasing the other looks for the other classes. Now, every piece you put in the scrapper is worth a certain amount of currency, dependent on its ilvl. The higher the ilvl, the more it’s worth. B-delves and keys now offer something for you if it doesn’t offer power (or unable/unwilling to trade to a group member). Raids are a little different since the guarantee of loot doesn’t exist, so bosses can have a chance at dropping this currency once unlocked, like 20% chance to drop 10 on Normal, and the amount is based on your raid level so don’t get stuck on the example amounts. You can still sell the piece for gold if you don’t care about this system.
Costs of the tier level appearances increase the higher tier you wish to purchase, but are balanced out if you’re pushing harder content for higher ilvl. Like an 8/8 champ gear offers, say, 15 currency. RF head appearance costs 15, N costs 25, H costs 35, and Mythic costs 50. Maybe the full RF set costs 300 right out. Again, don’t get stuck on the example amounts; they can be balanced.
Now, if you get bored with your main, you can switch to alts, where, when you get a piece of gear, you can continue the grind while building the sets on the alt. You can fill in gaps to get the pieces you want for the looks you want with the pieces you don’t need. All this without having to wait for catalyst charges. Or, you can play, say, a paladin and grind down any unused gear for the Mythic Mage set, it’s your choice! Starting on a lower difficulty, it’ll take longer but doesn’t have to be the way you do it. Taking to long? go to your main and blast out some 10+ mythics or tier 11 B-delves for grindables, it also fills the vault with grindables for next week.
PVP sets:
I haven’t forgot about these. These are basically the same, but 1500 rating and the full set to unlock everything else for purchase for the warband. PVE requirements do not unlock this, and vice versa. PVP’ers shouldn’t have problems with this and would bring non-PVP’ers out of their comfort zone and try something new.
In conclusion:
Now that the scrapper is unlocked, you can start targeting for each tier set becoming unlocked on all levels, any gear slot you don’t have. This keeps collectors or people of interest engaged in the game. It’s not just giving these looks away, the system is something to work towards. Once you get everything, or all that you want, you’re done, you don’t have to do it anymore. You don’t care about the system, it isn’t going to hurt you to have it.
Just looking for a system that I can work towards collecting all (or most) of the sets without FOMO until I can solo the raids 2 xpacks down the line. This offers more than one way to do that. Either collecting everything on one character or moving over to your alts and doing it that way. Being able to collect transmog a bit more allows for the hard work of the designers to not get religated to something 4 years down the line because.
TLDR;
Add a scrapper tool for all DROPPED BOP/Warband gear to get a resource we can convert into tier set appearances, NO POWER. Only available when getting the seasonal finisher (Heroic raid, 3000 M+, or delve boss on hardest difficulty SOLO). You need to complete a full raid tier set appearance on one character to unlock the purchase on the whole warband. PVP sets can be added to the system upon reaching 1500 solo rating and completing one full set.